Daleria herself on the other hand, did not care in the slightest. Every word spoken to her about her sister felt like somebeast had stabbing her in the back then twisting the hilt. It was driving her crazy. Everywhere in her head, her emotions swirled around and around, sending her life spinning around in a never-ending spiral of black and white that moved at a furious pace, and that revolved in her head, dizzying her.
Night had finally fallen, and it brought peace to both Salamandastron and Daleria's spinning mind. Creeping silently out of her dormitory, she paced towards a small balcony like ledge facing the sea, where she liked to sit and think. She knew that if she was found, she would be heavily punished, but to herself, she had nothing to lose, so who cares? She was so immersed in her own thoughts; she hardly noticed that she had bumped into somebeast. When she looked up, she got the shock of her life.
Colonel Rapieratce?
That thought flashed through her head.
The colonel was equally shocked. He knew that neither Daleria nor himself was supposed to be there.
'Daleria? What on Mossflower are you doing here? You are not the flippin sentry for tonight!'
The look Daleria shot him clearly meant 'neither are you'. Sighing, she gazed out, standing on the ledge and letting the night wind play with her fur. As she looked along the shore and sea, which was coated with a glinting silver finish of white moonlight, she let out a soft sigh and sat down on the moss strewn ledge. She gathered her legs up and placed her chin on her knees. She saw her entire life flash through the night scene, and silent tears started to flow down, dampening her fur, reflecting the white moonlight. The colonel sat down next to her in resignation, knowing that neither of them was going anywhere. He put a comforting paw across her shoulders and asked.
'What's wrong, old gel? I'm here to talk to, y'know.'
To his total and unexpected surprise, Daleria actually replied.
'I'm just so confused! Everything seems to be crashing down on my shoulders, and everything I hold dear is slipping through my paws! Why!?'
Though Rapieratce was stunned, he regained enough composure to reply.
'That's how the world works, me gel. Nobeast knows why flippin old fate does these bally things to us, but one blinkin way or another, we'll pull through.'
Daleria stopped the flow of tears from running down her face.
'Lady Consellariel will batter me into dust when she finds out I sneaked out tonight.'
The colonel smiled gently at her.
'If she finds out, m'gel.'
Daleria was stunned. Colonel Rapieratce had always been an uptight hare when it came to rules and regulations.
'You're not going to report me?'
'How could I old gel? You were a confused hare simply lookin' for a bally quiet place to think. No chap with a right mind would report ye.'
Smiling softly, Daleria got up slowly.
'Thank you greatly, sah. That really meant a lot to me.'
The colonel got up.
'Now off you go, me gel, get some sleep. A chap would think you bally well needed it.'
***********
Daleria got up, and for the first time in two weeks, felt refreshed and good to be alive. The black rings under her eyes had disappeared, and she felt surprisingly light hearted.
Stretching slightly, she put on her tunic and went down to the mess hall for breakfast. As she entered, everybeast looked up, gaping. None of them had seen Daleria look so refreshed for a long time, and the Major's patrol looked at her with relief. The old Daleria had finally returned!
'What are all of you looking at?'
There was a miniature explosion at the sound of Daleria talking. A stream of talk hit her like a tidal wave.
'Daleria! You're talking!'
'Captain Daleria! You!'
'Daleria! What got you talking again?'
At this time, Lady Consellariel entered. An immediate silence fell. She gave Daleria a wide smile.
'That's good, keep your mind off the Major.'
Daleria was quickly ushered over to her patrol's table, where she started eating, the warm and filling food felt good after the two weeks of near starvation. Eating slowly, she considered everything that had happened, and everything that might happen. Inside, she knew that Clandestine, both as her sister and as a higher ranking officer, would not want her moping around and crying her eyes out.
The real Daleria was back, and she was back for good. She would get rid of the vermin who had done this, put her oath to rest, whether or not it took her everything she had. Vaxial had been the first, and now which ever beast had done and commanded this would go down next. Daleria had nothing more to loose. She would give everything to pay for the things she had lost.
Even her life. It all came down to finishing off what she herself had started off. Those responsible would pay, not only for Clandestine, but for every other beast that had been affected by these troubled times.
Lieutenant Dallaw and Sergeant Longrunn were talking amongst themselves while watching a training Daleria.
'Look at that bally hare! If neither Rapieratce or Lady Consellariel comes right now and peel her off that sabre of hers, she's going to wear the flippin drilling ground down to dust!
'Too true.'
'I say old chap, here comes the lady herself!'
They watched as the badger lady ambled up to the training hare, who had her back towards Consellariel. The badger lady placed a large paw onto Daleria's shoulder. Before she could say a word, the hare captain moved so quickly she was a blur. Whipping her body over to the right, she did a lightning fast turn that sent her sabre, back strap, sheath and all flying off her back where it had been loosely hung. Swiftly catching the hardy reed woven sheath in her left paw, she brought it up to neck level, placed her right paw on the hilt and withdrew half of the blade at an angle that reflected the noontide sun straight into Consellariel's eyes.
All this was done in a matter of seconds, and when Daleria finally looked up, she got the shock of her life. Looking up into the badger lady's stunned eyes, which were squinting at the bright light, the hare captain quickly shoved the sabre back into its sheath and hurriedly slung it back over her shoulder and buckled it back on. Coming smartly to attention, she saluted Consellariel and rapped out an apology.
'Beg yeh pardon marm! Didn't know it was ye who was behind me marm!'
Chuckling ever so slightly, Consellariel blinked a few times and regained her composure.
'At ease, captain.'
Daleria hastily took up the at ease position as the badger lady started to talk.
'I know, Daleria that you want to train hard, should come a day when the vermin responsible for your sisters death come across our shores, but this is too much. You have been here since dawn for the past few days, and have barely eaten a bit of food.'
'But marm, I don't feel the least bit tired or hungry.'
'Daleria, you've told both Rapieratce and me those very words for the past few days, so I will tell you again, get rest and some food.'
'But…!'
'Get in and get food, and that is an order. Dismissed.'
Just as Daleria started to trudge back into the mountain, she heard some muffled chuckling coming from some nearby shrubbery. Whipping around instinctively, she sighted the two unfortunate hare officers.
'Longrunn! Dallaw! I'm going to-- !'
Hearing their commanding officer's voice sent shockwaves through them. Their ears shot straight up in panic, and they turned tail and fled, sending sand flying everywhere. Daleria followed at an equally fast speed, driven by comical rage.
'You two come back here and Ill make you march ten leagues before nightfall! You fiends!'
The irrepressible Lieutenant Dallaw shouted back at her.
'Tut tut, watch yore language marm!'
An outraged yell and the patter of footpaws followed that remark as they entered the mountain. Daleria smiled evilly. She was not a Long Patrol hare captain for nothing. Putting on a burst of speed, she cornered the two misfit hares against a wall, and with a swift, single movement of her body, Longrunn and Dallaw were pressed against the wall, with an angry captain Daleria breathing down their necks.
Still breathing heavily, Daleria waved a paw under both of the offenders' noses.
'If I catch you two one more time, the next time we go on patrol, I'll set both of you on double guard duty and march your paws until they frazzle up and drop off, you two get that?'
She stopped leaning over them and started to make her way to the Mess Hall. Under his breath, Dallaw muttered,
'No I don't missie don't-eat-at-all.'
Daleria's acutely sharp hearing caught every word that was said. Doubling back with a quick twist, she pinned Dallaw against the wall with both paws, quicker than he could blink. With a dangerously causal smile on her face, she asked,
'Did I hear you mutter something, lieutenant?'
Swallowing hard, the lieutenant shook his head frantically.
'No marm, nothing at all marm!'
Smiling that same disarming smile of hers, Daleria released Dallaw.
'Really? I thought I heard a request for double sentry duty tonight. You should have just asked, I could have easily got the colonel to agree.'
Then she walked off, still smiling.
Longrunn prodded the naughty lieutenant.
'Do that again, old chap, and you'll be running around the bally mountain with the captain and her flippin great fencing sabre chasing you.'
'Then I'll take me own flippin sabre with me.'
'That's bally well useless, old boy. Remember way back when she was but a flippin recruit? Beat me at it, just flipped me blinkin sabre into the air. Didn't last a flippin second.'
The younger lieutenant started to laugh,
'Ho yes I did, jolly well hilarious!'
'Why you liddle ----!'
The sergeant started to chase Dallaw, and both ended up crashing into Lady Consellariel, literally.
'Eep! Marm! Apologies, we- he- I-!'
Sighing, the badger lady said,
'Both of you, get to the Mess Hall before I decide to throw you there. I have got a long day ahead of me.'
Saluting, the two officers scurried away wordlessly.
Longrunn couldn't believe he had done what he had just done. Usually the strict and organized hare, he never did mad things that were against the rules and got him into trouble. Still in his own daydream, he automatically made his way slowly towards the Mess Hall where he sat down next to Daleria. He snapped out of his dream world as he watched Daleria. The hare captain was absently pushing the food around on her plate, letting it grow cold.
'What's wrong old gel? You look jolly pale.'
Daleria put down her hand carved wood fork, sighing deeply. She started to converse with the older sergeant.
'I don't know sergeant. Ever since Clandestine's death, I've had this feeling of unrest, though I don't know why. I can't help but think that trouble is brewing, though it may not be large, I think it will be lethal.'
The sergeant nodded slowly, with a thoughtful look on his face, ears slightly drooping.
'Well old gel, cross the bridge when you come to it, so I guess that we jolly well have to wait and see, wot!'
'I guess you're right…'
Reluctantly, Daleria forced the food down, though every bite only made it taste worse. Clearing her plate, she moved off towards her dormitory.
Hooking her sabre's sheath onto the wall peg above her bed, she progressed to take a cloth from her trunk and started to polish the keen silver blade. After finishing that, she sheathed it and then took out a small wood carving knife. Reaching for her sturdy yet lightweight oak quarterstaff, she cut and smoothed out some of the hard and bumpy lumps that made handling it difficult and rough that she had missed the last time she had repaired her weapons. Then she looked at its base. On it was carved the name "Daleria". There was a blank space next to that. She never knew her surname, the incident where her parents and kin died having taken place only just after her dibbunhood. War made her grow and mature too fast. She took quite a few long seasons to learn the ways of surviving in Mossflower. Ten seasons had passed, and only then did she stumble across Redwall Abbey and find her way over to Salamandastron.
That was all a good seven seasons ago, and if she had ever known her surname, the shadows of pain and terror had long blocked it out to make way for more important or more painful memories and skills. Daleria could barely remember what her own family was like, where they lived and what they did. Now that the age of Vaxial was past, she longed to know more about her own past.
What was her family like?
Who were her friends?
What was her surname?
Where is, or was, her home?
The clouded figures, images and sounds filling her memory did not help. Every time she tired to remember, to sharpen the images, it all blurred and refused to give way. Daleria did not know what she could do, if she even could do anything to help herself in the first place.
Daleria absentmindedly fingered her necklace. She took it off as a single tear ran down her face. Looking at the sapphire, she saw the word "Daleria".
Wait. Was there something beside it? Yes!
Perking up considerably, Daleria held it up to the light.
"Windbind"
So that was her full name. Daleria Windbind. Her sister never knew. Clandestine would never find out who she really was. It was too late. Clandestine had gone down, barely even knowing her own sister, not knowing who her parents were, what her full name was, not even her own history. How Daleria wished that patrol never happened. It could all have been different. Everything could have changed. Clandestine would still have been alive. But it was too late. The bell that signalled quarterstaff practice woke Daleria from her own reverie.
Grabbing her oaken staff that rested next to her sabre, she set off to find Lady Consellariel first to inform her about her findings.
She knocked on the forge door. No answer. She knocked again. Still no response. She got worried. Pushing the forge door open, she rushed in, When she found the badger lady, she saw Consellariel's face was deathly white, her eyes slightly misted and faraway. Consellariel suddenly fell to the forge floor, twitching unnaturally. Daleria stood, shocked and disbelieving, at the doorway. Her mind had frozen, and the captain did not seem to want, or could, register the fact of what had happened before her. Only one, single word that flashed through her head.
Poison.
The minute Daleria saw, she knew. The quarterstaff in her paw clattered noisily to the ground as it fell from her nerveless paws. But the hare captain was not there to hear the noise. Daleria had already raced away from the scene. Running haphazardly down the staircase, she streaked across the grounds as she dashed hurriedly down onto the training ground itself to find Colonel Rapieratce. She eventually found him standing at the head of all the officers.
'Colonel sah! Lady Consellariel seems to have been poisoned sah! We need Taremin!'
Rapieratce sprang straight into action. Dropping his staff, the two hares set off to find Taremin. After grabbing the necessary things, the three dashed up into the forge.
Lady Consellariel had gone still. Anybeast could tell she was still breathing, but very shallowly and in short breaths. Daleria dropped down to her knees.
'No! Not you marm! Anybeast but you!'
The colonel pulled her away gently.
'There's nothing you can do, old gel. Let Taremin do her job.'
'Why me? Why everybeast I love and admire? Why?'
'I don't know, old gel,'
The colonel's jaw was clenched tight, green eyes blazing.
'but we're jolly well going to find out.'
*
The world was spinning crazily around and Consellariel felt extremely dizzy. The dark and foggy shapes around her slowly began to come into a blurred focus as she shook her aching head, looking around her. Her head was pounding, but at least she was alive. Consellariel groggily got up, and saw the bent figure of a hare sitting in the moonlight streaming forth from the forge window. Taking a wild guess, she raised her voice, though it came out shaky because of her parched throat.
'Captain...?'
Daleria's head shot straight up, her ears slightly tipped. The captain proceeded to hurriedly rub sleep from her tired eyes with her paws. Consellariel could see from the black rings under her eyes that sleep had eluded her for a quite long time, and the black streaks running down her face clearly indicated tears. Her face was deathly pale, her fur in messy disarray. That did not conceal the happiness and outright relief that showed in her voice when she spoke aloud.
'Marm? You're awake! Thank goodness! I thought you were...'
There was an uncomfortable silence. Nobeast wanted to elaborate on that matter. Fortunately, Consellariel soon broke the awkward with a question.
'How long was I unconscious?'
'Tonight is the third night marm.'
'Three whole days? What happened?'
'The...,'
Here Daleria faltered, and her jaw tightened. There was pain showing in her black eyes.
'Corrin Flower poison. Alike to the one that was used to...'
Daleria shut her eyes tightly to stop the flow of tears. When they opened, Consellariel saw the same flames of vengeance that burned long ago when Vaxial was still alive in them.
'This is the work of foxes. This is the kin of Waleb the White. I have seen her kin once. She had a raven furred brother, who was very dear to his sister. His name is Seppak the Black, cruel and merciless. He was a captain of Vaxial's horde and one of the few who escaped. Luckily you did not drink too much of your water, it was spiked with the poison. If you had...'
There was another one of those unbreakable silences that only Consellariel could possibly break.
'Then why is he targeting me?'
'Because, marm, he wants to ruin my life bit by bit, then sooner or later, he will kill me. He will eradicate all those close to me and torment me with old memories and new foes. If that is what he is trying to do. Mayhap I should leave Salamandastron.'
'No. That is what this Seppak thing wants. You stay here.'
The hare captain looked straight at Consellariel.
'But I will hurt everybeast here! Look at what happened to you marm!'
But the badger lady was firm. Her voice grew hard and commanding.
'You stay Captain Daleria. You belong in Salamandastron and may not leave it without my consent. And you do not have it.'
Daleria sank back in her seat resignedly. She knew nobeast could change her badger lady's mind, and she had no right to challenge her orders at any rate.
'Then I shall stay.'
Consellariel settled back down into her pillow.
'Good, now get some sleep. You don't look too well. Good night.'
Rising wearily, Daleria saluted the badger lady.
'Good night marm.'